Campfire – Jamie Milne Of Glenfiddich

I first learned about campfire from a posting in Whisky Isreal blog , and thought I might give it a try .
The event was held in a nice location although if you are not local – finding was a bit of a quest ( hidden in a office complex behind a pub ) As i am reading the “Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy” now – i thought that the only thing missing was the “beware the Leopard” sign to make it complete.

The evening itself started very nice with a good atmosphere , with wine and 12 Yrs Glenfiddich for a warm up. A lot was written about this dram so I will skip on …
Jamie’s story was a very light and flowing , and keeping and interesting pace while finding the common thread of Glenfiddich in his life , and during the story we were presented with a dram of the 15 Yrs Glenfiddich . Again an age old dram that the is worldly known , so i will skip describing it too !

When the presentation of Jaime’s ended we were presented with the star dram of the evening : Glenfiddich 14 years Rich Oak

Glenfiddich 14 years Rich Oak , Personally i thought the first image of the bottle (presented as a wood carving) was much more appealing then the actual bottle , but I guess it was not a good way to sell .

We’ll start of with the color : The Dram has a light gold ( almost honey hue) with faint traces of almonds , and in some lightings it has the hue of a light rust on a thin sheet of metal – all in all a good color and very promising .
The swirl in the glass is very smooth and leave nice light silky legs on the rim .
Nose : The first scent is a very sharp and hiding many of the properties , once you let your nose settle into it the currents of Vanilla , Peppers , Caramel and a Dry leaves emerge to give a nice lingering sensation in the nose.

Taste : The dram rolls very smoothly in the mouth and leaves some unfamiliar feeling in this “young” Glenfiddich dram , it’s presence on the palette is very light and easy , no burn on the back of the mouth and no after burn going down in the stomach . Once it clears the mouth there are traces of Caramel, Almonds , Cream and an oily feeling that leaves you wondering what it is hiding.
No Tasting will be complete with out adding a splash of water , so that is what i did and was very much surprised at the results :
Color : To my surprise the water had no effect on the color , but it did make the swirl become even smoother .
Nose : Again not much change , but an emerging scent that creeps out of the altered dram is of soft Klin dust with a pine over tone.
Taste : The water gives this Dram the little push it needed for the nice burn it was lacking before , and that kick is dominated with a flavor of peppers coming out in force ( relatively) to compliment the others .

All in all a very nice dram from Glenfiddich , and one I am happy to have experienced as it differs from the regular path of the Glenfiddich ( to me ) .

2 Comments

  • Great!
    i am so happy you hear about it in my blog and went.
    very very cool
    !

  • Good to meet you, Assaf, and thanks for your comments on both me and our innovative 14yo Rich Oak. I’m really pleased you enjoyed it.

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